[Funding alert] London-based Belong Secures €3.4 Million in Pre-Seed Funding

With a focus on millennials who work professionally, Belong seeks to open up wealth-building opportunities that have historically been limited to a privileged few.

Nick Hungerford, a prosperous British businessman, created Avion and Samantha. Nutmeg was the first licenced robo-advisor in Europe when it was sold to JP Morgan in 2021 for about £700 million.

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Nick was a close mentor and counsellor to the Belong founders, sharing the aim of democratising wealth building and empowering a new generation of investors before his untimely passing in July 2023.

Octopus Ventures, Viola Fintech, Connect Ventures, Portage Ventures, January Ventures, and well-known Fintech angel investors Ricky Knox and Gautham Radhakrishnan, William Todd, co-founder of Nutmeg, prominent UK economist John Kay, and tech industry expert Edwina Johnson are among the other investors to date.

Avion Gray, Co-Founder & CEO of Belong said, “We need two things in order to build long-term wealth – time and money, but we rarely have both of these elements concurrently. Millennials still have the time ahead of us to see any long-term investment we make now compound and pay off before retirement, but we often struggle to get started. Whether that’s due to not being able to secure a mortgage, lack of confidence around investing or feeling like we don’t have enough cash available to make it worthwhile – Belong is changing this,”.

Being the first platform to give users the option of taking out a loan to increase their long-term stock investment, Belong has been operating covertly. A brand-new, low-interest "Boost loan" function has been developed as a result, enabling larger initial investments and enhancing the compounding effect over time. The Boost loan is then repaid by customers individually and in modest monthly installments, enabling their investment to increase.

Gray said, “Historically, despite daily movements, the stock market has shown an upward trajectory over the long term – to the tune of 10%+ per year3. An investment in the broad market is inherently diversified, transparent in value, and accessible. This makes the Boost loan attractive for anyone with excess cash, a steady income, and the mindset to stay the course and be long,”.

Belong Co-Founder and COO Samantha Rosenberg said, “The excess money millennials keep in savings accounts or cash ISAs is simply not working hard enough for us. Not investing it, means we are losing out on our primary wealth building years, People like the idea of having easy access to their cash, but this is often due to present bias – the tendency to discount one’s future self in favour of more immediate gratification. Our future self feels like a stranger, and it’s difficult to make sacrifices for that person today.”

Zihao Xu, Fintech Partner at Octopus Ventures, added: “We are proud to be on this journey with Belong and look forward to supporting the company in its quest to be a true pioneer in long-term wealth-building. Samantha and Avion’s shared vision and complementary expertise puts them in a great position to help more people get on the path to a better financial future.”

About Belong

Belong is dedicated to creating sustainable prosperity for their future selves and is on a mission to encourage a new generation of astute, long-term thinkers. They are spearheading a generation of young investors that weather market downturns, outlive passing trends, and profit over time.